2h37

I think this film has to be one of the most moving, and heartbreaking films of recent times.

The film basically starts off with a suicide in a school toilet. U don't see who it is, then from there it goes to the beginning of the day, and we get to know 6 characters, and they are going through some pretty heavy things, anyway eventually one of them will commit suicide.

I've been teaching Physical Education in schools for 8 years now, and never in a film have I seen such an accurate portrayal of what 'really' goes on in school life.

The film is shot beautifully, and sounds incredible.

The ending is so shocking, and so what one would not expect, it is something that will haunt me for days to come.

This is Definitely one to watch.

I think the fact that the Director/Writer was in school only a few years ago is a major contributing factor to the raw honesty expressed in the film.

The film is shot in two separate 'modes' if you will. Firstly there is the smooth observation style where we get to know the characters in their school environment as they go through their drama, but the stunning part of the film is in the interview sections, where we get to know the characters back stories, and their deepest, darkest thoughts.

You keep wondering, who is it going to be (who commits suicide) and as the drama unfolds you keep changing your mind, until bam, it hits you in the face in the final five minutes. I am all over the place in my writing, but I've just seen it at a Media screening in Australia, and I am still in a bit of shock.

It's one of the best Australian Films I have seen in recent years.

"No man is an island" wrote John Donne in a poem. And, certainly, to think of the human being as an isolated creature makes little sense. We are, after all, social animals. We need others, and we need them desperately. Thalluri's film deals with the intensity of high school and the need of the other, presenting a handful of characters that coexist in the same place. We cannot say they are friends, they barely know each other, each of them carries a burden so heavy that they become estranged, alone, and that's when the fear of losing one's own humanity is ignited.

We have the case of Marcus and Melody: brother and sister. They come from a wealthy family, well structured around male hegemony. Their father is very much alike the primordial father from a tribe that Fred describes in Totem and Taboo. This primordial father can have carnal knowledge with his offspring, because in these mythical prehistoric time no such thing as incest exists; however, the jealous sons will savagely kill the father, this powerful alpha male (a figure that bears some resemblance with Lacan's inverted E, which symbolized "the one man not castrated"). By killing the totem-father only taboo remains, and thus incest becomes the ultimate sin. When Marcus witnesses his father having sex he attributes this attitude as a total disregard for moral codes, after all, Marcus seems to imply that his father acts in such a way that he has no choice but to witness the coitus. This traumatic event triggers something deep inside his consciousness and as a result the incest fantasy and the rape fantasy will become firmly inserted in his psyche.

The first scene with Luke, the high school jock, is most revealing, as we see him in his bedroom, in front of his computer, stroking his penis most vigorously. What images appear in the computer screen? Luke is struggling with his own sexuality, he is in a place that Lacan would denominate 'minus phi' which is the inscription of a point of fracture in the imaginary, that indicates a certain fissure that affects the constitution of the libidinal object in which one's own image finds support.

"Uneven" Steven is a kid that suffers of genetic malformations, not only does he have one leg longer than the other, but he also has a condition that makes him lose control of his sphincters, and as a result he wets himself in class, becoming the target for everyone's cruel jokes.

Then there is Sean, a boy that openly assumes his homosexuality and pays the price for it, being constantly mocked by Luke's friends and other guys in school. The only way for him to cope with this is escaping into a world of stupor produced by his marijuana consumption.

Finally there are two girls that play a very relevant role in this film, that owes much to Gus Van Sant's (listed in the credits) realistic and insightful approach of adolescence: Sarah, Luke's girlfriend, makes the mistake of caring too much for her boyfriend, and consequently once she begins to have doubts about her future with him, everything falls apart. Kelly, on the other hand, is perhaps the nicest person in school. She seems to genuinely try to help everyone, she is kind with boys and girls, instead of creating problems she tries to find a solution for them. When everyone attacks Steven she makes sure he's going to be OK.

However, all of them suffer from teenage angst. But this is not the typical, cliché angst. Lacanian psychoanalysts might ask… why despite all the amount of scientific knowledge that has been accumulated, and the efforts to establish theories that presuppose to grant us reassurance (Levis Straus structuralism and Hegel historicism that aims towards the acquisition of the Absolute Knowledge, in other words a conceptualization that implies a theory without remainders) we still experience restlessness? Lacan asked himself "why is it that we so much want to preserve the dimension of anxiety?". Anxiety is a horrible thing and yet is there a human need to preserve it? In this regard Kierkegaard may be closer to the question of angst when he speaks about the psychological ambiguity concerning this concept "Anxiety is a sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy". Arguably, the existence of angst points out to something that cannot be reduced to a rational category, and without which a truly reflection on the question of ethics is useless. We find this sympathetic antipathy in characters like Marcus, who has a strong relationship with his sister and at the same time despises her. The antipathetic sympathy is present in Kelly, the sweetest girl that treats everyone kindly but that secretly feels alienated, incapable of anything but antipathy for herself.

However they are all connected, and what they do will affect the lives of the others. What happens then when during the first minutes of the film someone commits suicide? Life is a tricky business, that's for sure. But life as teenagers can be even trickier.

This movie really touched me. Above being "the exact thing in teenagers generally troubled times" it goes one step beyond by showing detailed description of the characters in a rather pleasant and unexpected way. There is one part that I really liked about this movie. The mix of perspectives, that the unconventional characters show, is in my opinion the best segment in any teenage-related movie, I have ever seen. Makes me think back and realize that my teenage isn't as bright as expected of my common honesty, kindness, but seeing this movie made me realize a lot of other things, which would never occur to me, if I hadn't seen it. I recommend this movie to everyone, it really dazzled me, and sent my heart beat way up!I'm still shaking!

It was riveting. I just could not look away. As the movie rolled on I started to feel that it was powerful and confronting, but i had no idea how much more intense it would get.

The movie gives an insight into what unfortunately is everyday life for a lot of school kids. Some of us live outside that environment and would walk by and not know what is happening.

Parents need to see this film in particular, just to see a glimpse of what their kids go through. Often parent dismiss their kids problems as trivial, but unfortunately to a high schooler they are massive. And unfortunately the problems can escalate into a tragedy.

Definitively a must see for all.

'In high-school everyone feels pressure.' 2:37 starts with this sentence. So one can guess that the film is about life of the students of high-school and the difficulty of their life. Being a teenager is often hard because the teenager thinks that life is against them. In this film usual teenager problem is carried out. For instance, there are some students desire to succeed always, to fit in, to be perfect, and to be normal. One can come across this typical person in real life.

The characters in this film was really good when they acted their roles. I like all of them but I like some of them most. They are Melody, Steive, and the girl who kills herself.

Melody was lovely and calm girl. She was raped by her brother and then she became pregnant. And she called her mother but she didn't take enough concern. In this part of film one can easily observe the effect of indifferent parents on their children. The children who don't take enough interest feel alone and some time later they commit bad things.

Steive is really a man that should be appreciated because he is a sample of determination. No matter what happens to him he just put up and doesn't give up. And he is also patient because he doesn't stand against his deficiency and the criticisms from his friends. So I like him and I will take into consideration his patience and manners.

And I like also the girl who kills herself. She is quite ordinary. But one can understand at the end of the film that she feels all of her emotions inside of hers. When I noticed that the one who committed suicide is she, I was really confused at first. But after I thought of her, I acknowledge her to be right. Because she has nobody to explain herself.

And finally, I want to talk about the film generally. I like the music that played during the film. They helped me to feel the characters better. And the film managed to impress me.